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1 in 3 Small Businesses Faced Top Hazards Last Year, Insureon Survey Finds

PR Newswire

CHICAGO, March 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Insureon, the nation's leading online agency for small business insurance, today released the results of its most recent Small Business Outlook Survey, which polled more than 1,000 business owners about the top hazards they faced.

Published by Insureon'sSmall Business Institute (ISBI), the survey found that, in the last 12 months, 35 percent of small business respondents experienced an event that could have led to an insurance claim. Those events included six common incidents: customer complaint or contract dispute; employee injury; burglary or theft; fire, storm damage, or cracked pipes; customer injury; and injury from a product sold. Of these, the most common were a client complaint or contract dispute (22.2 percent) and employee injury (10.6 percent).

Previous research analyzing insurance claims filed by small-business owners suggests that only about 8.8 percent are likely to make an insurance claim in any one year.

"It's not shocking that more businesses are experiencing incidents than are making claims," said Ted Devine, Insureon's CEO. "An incident might be something small like a customer complaining. And even if it's something larger – like a customer threatening to sue – many business owners may not realize they should be alerting their insurer."

The report also examines reasons why some business owners may not be filing insurance claims, including,,,

Lack of insurance;

Incidents that cost less than a policy's deductible;

Worry that their premiums will increase after making a claim;

Preference for handling the incident without the insurance company.

"Entrepreneurs often prefer to take care of things on their own," Devine noted. "But we were surprised by how common incidents like this were. The insurance industry needs to continue to work closely with business owners to make sure they understand how to manage small incidents so that they don't escalate into potentially costly events."

A leading player in the insurtech space, Insureon leverages its unique online application to both serve retail clients directly and support the leading top-five banks, brokerages, and insurance companies in delivering their small commercial business. It places more than $300 million in premium annually.